R. Kelly petitions Supreme Court to overturn sexual assault convictions

Disgraced singer and convicted felon R. Kelly has asked the Supreme Court to overturn his federal sexual assault convictions, according to Notice board.

Attorneys for Kelly, 57, filed a petition Monday arguing that Kelly’s sex crimes charges involving minors needs to be barred by the statute of limitations, the publication reported. Kelly’s team is asking the high court to overturn an appeals court ruling that ruled that “no statute of limitations protects” Kelly from convictions.

In the court filing, Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, argues that a 2003 federal statute that extends the statute of limitations in such cases can’t be applied because Kelly was charged with crimes committed within the late Nineties and early 2000s, Billboard reports.

“Retroactive application of the 2003 amendment not only contradicts congressional intent,” Bonjean writes within the temporary. “It violates notions of fundamental fairness.”

According to a Chicago jury that found Kelly guilty in September 2022 of six federal child pornography charges Rolling StoneThe petition addresses those convictions and focuses on a key witness, “Jane,” who testified that Kelly filmed his sexual encounters together with her when she was just 14, Rolling Stone reports.

Bonjean’s petition maintains that the statute of limitations ran out in September 2009, when “Jane” turned 25. In legal documents, Kelly’s lawyers argue that “the defendant was not charged until more than a decade after the statute of limitations had run under applicable law at the time of the alleged conduct,” according to Rolling Stone.

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“This court has made clear that the aversion to retroactive lawmaking is deeply rooted in our jurisprudence and embodies a legal doctrine that predates our Republic by centuries,” Bonjean’s letter reads, according to Billboard. “Basic considerations of fairness require that individuals have an opportunity to learn the law and adjust their conduct.”

Bonjean, who has repeatedly maintained Kelly’s innocence, is the attorney who successfully argued within the 2021 case that overturned Bill Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault conviction, according to Billboard.